4 common website design mistakes to avoidMashable Share Creating the perfect website for your small business is about much more than simply picking the right domain name and pictures. Companies must instead be able to include practical information about their business while also avoiding common mistakes that often plague websites.More

Introducing the STC tryoutSTC Share The STC Tryout invites technical communicators to try STC for the rest of 2012, paying a fraction of the annual membership rate but still getting all the benefits for the rest of the year. Members, refer a friend or colleague to this program and you'll be entered into a drawing to win a free 2013 membership for yourself! Nonmembers and former members, try us out for the rest of 2012 and we'll credit your account the amount you pay toward next year's full-year dues! So your tryout will pay for itself just by renewing. Call STC directly at +1 (703) 522-4114 and we'll even waive the regular $30 enrollment fee. See details at the link below. More

Create wireframes that work for you.net Magazine Share In this excerpt from The Web Designer's Roadmap, Giovanni DiFeterici discusses the role wireframing plays in design, and how to create a wireframe that suits your own needs.More

Infinite scroll: The Web's slot machineForbes Share It seems everyone is getting on the infinite scroll bus. Not too long ago, users were forced to reload pages to progress from one piece of content to the next. Web designers were advised against creating websites with information appearing "below the fold," the portion of the page underneath what is displayed on the screen. As mobile phones and tablets gained wider adoption, it looked like the swipe might become standard fare. But today, designers are dumping the click and flick and opting for the scroll for one simple reason — it works.More

Deadline for 2013 STC Summit call for proposals is 10 SeptemberSTC Share Time is running out to contribute your ideas, studies, experience, and expertise to the 2013 Technical Communication Summit, the 60th Annual Conference of the Society for Technical Communication. The work you are doing and have done is an important element in the education process, and we invite you to share it with Summit attendees. For more information, including general information about the conference, descriptions of the individual tracks within the education program, descriptions of session formats and required supporting materials, answers to key questions, and a proposal checklist, visit the Call for Proposals website. If you couldn't join STC for our free live Web seminar on Planning and Submitting Your STC Summit Proposal, see the recording at http://summit.stc.org. Proposals are due at 5:00 PM EDT (GMT-4), Monday, 10 September. All proposals must be submitted through our online submission system.More

REST Web services demystifiedInfoWorld Share These days, REST APIs are available to integrate your application or website with thousands of platforms. Unfortunately, tapping this dizzying buffet of options isn't always easy. Most API documentation assumes an understanding of the foundational technology, and while REST API architecture gives developers enormous freedom to innovate, that freedom comes at a price — namely, fewer guidelines for application behavior. But because these APIs are based on HTTP, a mature protocol, there are numerous strategies you can use to develop and debug your application. More

Adobe releases 1st open source font family, Source Sans ProGraphicDesign Share Adobe has released Source Sans Pro, its first open source font family. The font is also being added to Typekit and Google Web Fonts to be freely available for use by Web developers. Adobe is releasing the font along with the source materials to allow for modification. More

STC Board approves new community funding modelSTC Share After reviewing the results of a knowledge-based governance survey sent to all Society members, the STC Board of Directors voted to approve a new community-funding model described as a "Partial Pass-Through." Under this model, STC communities will receive funding based strictly on the number of members in a chapter or SIG. During the budgeting process, all communities will receive a fixed amount of funding per member — $15 per chapter member and $4 per SIG member — regardless of projected expenses and income, or estimated reserves at year end. All funding under the newly adopted model will be contingent upon a budget submission by the 31 October deadline and will take effect for the 2013 membership year.More

Companies like Adobe, Dell, Cisco, IBM, Philips and Siemens squeeze cost and time out of technical writing while improving clarity and consistency. Learn how they do it in this free white paper.

How to conduct a technical SEO site auditSearch Engine Watch Share Once you've finished your on-page SEO audit, the next step is to conduct a technical site audit. You don't want technical issues to make it difficult for search engines to crawl and index your site, as that will make it tougher to rank highly and cost you traffic or potential business. Here is a checklist of items you should watch for when conducting a technical SEO audit.More

Meteor Web development framework is gaining in popularityEnterprise Social Media Share Meteor, the JavaScript web development framework that speeds up the development of collaborative applications is gaining in popularity, and the backing company has gained funding. The framework streamlines the building of social and collaborative applications, where users need to view the actions of another's update in their browser, or via their smartphones, in real time.More

5 lessons companies can learn from Facebook's new iOS appEconsultancy Share The Facebook iOS app, which was built using HTML5 to more easily support development across multiple mobile platforms, has historically been considered a poor effort. A frequent complaint: it's too slow. So Facebook set out to change that, and recently released a new version of its iOS app — the first to use native code instead of HTML5. Initial reports are praising the new app, with some reviewers claiming performance has doubled. For other companies looking to create great mobile apps, here are five things companies can learn from Facebook's mobile experiences.More

The rise of infographics: Old or new?Business 2 Community Share The rise of social media has brought about many advantages: instantaneous and constant communication; the humanization of brands and stronger relationships with customers. However, it all comes at a price, mainly the diminishing attention span of users. So how does one make sure that not only does important information reach the intended audience, but that it also gets absorbed? One way is to use infographics.More

Design isn't permanent on the InternetThe Next Web Share There's a strange lack of permanency when it comes to digital design that never moves into the physical world — into print. The Web, with all its advantages, never stops changing. More than anything, it's because we don't want it to stop. Refreshes, redesigns, new looks — this is what we crave. That's often why the Web is so great: it changes. But it also alters the way we make and consume content.More

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Copyright 2012, Society for Technical Communication (STC). STC advances the theory and practice of technical communication. For more information about STC, visit www.stc.org.